I am a Tombstone Tourist: someone who loves to wander cemeteries. I find it akin to visiting a museum: an opportunity to enjoy rarely seen sculpture, intricate carvings, and amazing architecture, all in a tranquil outdoor setting. This blog is about cemetery culture, art, history, issues of death, and genealogy - subjects of current relevance. I usually find something that intrigues me and makes me want to dig deeper. Care to join me? Read on...

Friday, December 28, 2012

2012 – Remembering Those Who Have Gone……

I
am always amazed how quickly the year passes.And at the end of each one, I’m surprised to discover who
passed that I was unaware of. It is time again to remember those who left their
mark on the world….

January
~

The
first month of the year brought a loss to the Rhythm and Blues community, and
music in general. Singer Etta James,
born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938 was the dynamic singer that bridged
the gap between Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll.She reversed her name from Jamesetta to
Etta James when she was 14.

James’
music styles included blues, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, gospel, soul,
and jazz. During her sixty-year career, she won six Grammy’s and 17 Blues Music
Awards.In 1993, Etta James was
inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.Then in 2001, James was installed in the Blues Hall of Fame.
She was twice inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame – once in 1999 and again in
2008.

James
was diagnosed with leukemia in 2011 and died of the disease on Jan 20th,
just five days before her 74th birthday. Etta James was buried at
Inglewood Park Cemetery in L.A. County, California.

February
~

On
February 11th, Whitney Houston was found dead in her hotel room.

Houston
was born in August 1963 and began singing as a church soloist at the age of
11.Houston’s mother, Cissy
Houston, her cousins Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, and godmother, Aretha
Franklin, were all well known singers of R & B, gospel and soul music.By 1978, Whitney was singing back up for
Chaka Khan’s hit “I’m Every Woman.”

Her
debut album, Whitney Houston,
was released in 1985.Rolling
Stones magazine called her “one of the most exciting new voices in
years."By 1986 her album had scored three number one
positions; Greatest Love of All was
a number 1 single, Houston was the number one artist of the year, and her album
was number one on the Billboard year-end charts. Her career skyrocketed.

In
1992, Whitney married R&B singer Bobby Brown.They had one daughter together, Bobbi Kristina Brown in
1993. By the end of the nineties, rumors had spread that Houston was involved
in drugs, along with her husband. By the start of 2000, she had a reputation of
not showing up for interviews, photo shots and concerts. She and Brown divorced
in 2007.

Although
Houston tried to combat her drug problems, it appears the drugs were a factor
in her death.According to the
L.A. County Corner’s office, Houston had accidentally drowned in a bathtub at
the Beverly Hills Hotel due to the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease
and cocaine use".She
was 48 years old.Whitney Houston
was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.

March
~

Earl
Eugene Scruggs was born on January
6, 1924 in Flint Hill, North Carolina.He went on to become one of the best known Blue Grass three-fingered
style banjo players in the world.

Earl Scruggs & Lester Flatt

Scruggs
became famous when he started playing with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in
1945.It was here he made his
syncopated three-finger picking style popular.In 1948, he and guitarist Lester Flatt formed the Foggy
Mountain Boys.Known better as
Flatt & Scruggs, they were members of the Grand Ole Opry and played there
during the 1950’s.

In
1962, Flatt, Scruggs and Jerry Scoggins recorded The Ballad of Jed Clampet, which became the theme song for the Beverly
Hillbillies TV show.Both men
appeared in several shows as neighbors of the Clampet’s.They won a Grammy in 1969 for Foggy
Mountain Breakdown, the same year
they broke up.Flatt &
Scruggs were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985.

Scruggs
went on to win another Grammy in 2001.He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, and was
presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th Grammy
Awards in 2008.

Ryman Auditorium

Earl
Scruggs died on March 28th from natural causes, at the age of
88.His funeral was held in Ryman
Auditorium, former home of the Grand Ole Opry, where he had spent years playing
his banjo.He was buried at Spring
Hill Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.

April
~

April
saw the loss of one of the first mass merchandising artists, and a
controversial journalist.

Thomas
Kinkade was an American artist
known for his realistic yet somewhat idealistic paintings of cottages,
lighthouses, and Main Street.Calling himself the “Painter of Light,” Kinkade formed the Thomas
Kinkade Company and began mass marketing his paintings. He was one of the most
popular and collected U.S. artists, and according to his company, one in every
20 American homes own one of his paintings.

At
the height of his popularity, the Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery franchises
brought in millions of dollars. But in 2010, Kinkade’s manufacturing company,
which reproduced his artwork, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from
more than 6-million dollars in creditors claims.

Thomas
Kinkade died on April 6 of acute intoxication from alcohol and Valium.He was 54 years old.Kinkade was buried at Madronia Cemetery
in Saratoga, California.

~

On
April 7, journalism lost one of its most notorious reporters.Myron Leon (Mike) Wallace spent his
life in the media.

Mike
Wallace was born May 9, 1918 to
Russian immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts.He began his career as a radio newscaster in Michigan in
1939.After serving two years in the
U.S. Navy during WW II, Wallace became a staff announcer for the CBS radio
network.

During
the 1950’s, he hosted several game shows and two late night interview
programs.By the early 1960’s he
was appearing in commercials for Parliament cigarettes.From 1963 through ’66, he hosted the CBS
Morning News.

In
1968, Wallace found his niche as one the original reporters for the CBS news
program, 60 Minutes. It was
here that Wallace developed his hard-nosed reporter style.His on-air confrontational approach
took 60 Minutes to the top, and
helped keep it there for years.

Wallace
spent 38 years on the program. In 2006, he announced his retirement, although
he agreed to continue working for CBS News, doing special interviews.

During
his 70 plus years in the media, Wallace received numerous awards, including 21
Emmys, 5 Peabody Awards, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a Lifetime
Achievement Emmy.

Mike
Wallace died on April 7th in New Canaan, Connecticut.He was 93.He was buried in the West Chop Cemetery in Tisbury,
Massachusetts.

May
~

LaDonna
Gaines (Donna Summer) was born
on New Year’s Eve, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts. She began singing at a young
age and made the decision to become a singer while performing in the church
choir.

Hair in Germany

In
1967, Summer auditioned for a role in the Broadway musical Hair.She
was given a part in the German show.Donna moved to West Germany, learned the language and released two
singles in German.

Godspell in Germany

She
moved to Vienna, Austria in 1971 to appear in Godspell. During rehearsals she met Austrian actor, Helmuth
Sommer.They married in 1972 and
had a daughter the same year.She
divorced him in 1975, but kept his name, spelling it with a “u” instead of the
“o”.

In
1975, Summer released Love to Love You Baby in a short radio version and as a 17-minute club
version for Casablanca records in the U.S. By 1976, it was number 2 on the
Billboard charts.In 1978, her
version of MacArthur Park went
to number one on the charts.Suddenly Donna Summer had become Queen of Disco music.

The
release of her Bad Girls album
included two number one hits, the title track, and Hot Stuff, and a number two song – Dim All the Lights. She
then released a two record set in 1979, On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes
I & II.The album went to number one in the U.S.All told, Summer had 8 number one songs
within two years.

Summer
continued to write and releases music through the 80’s and 90’s. She released
her first album of original material, Crayons, in 2008.

In
2004, Summer, along with other Disco legends the Bee Gees, was inducted into the
Dance Music Hall of Fame. And it was announced earlier this month that Summer
will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

Donna
Summer died on May 17 in Florida of cancer.She was 63 years old. She is survived by her husband, Bruce
Sudano and three daughters. Summer was interred at Harpeth Hills Memorial
Gardens in Nashville.

June
~

Author
Ray Bradbury was born in 1920.He
began as his career as a newspaper boy during the day, and a writer by night.
He sold his first story to the pulp magazine Science Stories in 1941.He married Marguerite (Maggie) McClure in 1947 – She was the only woman
he ever dated.That same year, he
released his first book, Dark Carnival, a collection of short stories.

The
Martian Chronicles was released in 1950 and Bradbury became internationally
famous.In 1953, his best-known
work, Fahrenheit 451 was
published, and in 1966, it was made into a movie.

Bradbury
wrote over 600 stories, and published more than 30 books mainly in the genres
of science fiction, fantasy and horror.He received numerous awards including a World Fantasy Lifetime
Achievement award, the Grand Master Award, and an Emmy.

Ray
Bradbury died on June 5 in Los Angeles, California.He was 91 years old.He was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in L.A.

~

In
June, we also lost a woman with amazing talent as a screenwriter, producer,
director, playwright, journalist, and novelist- Nora Ephron.

She
was born on May 19, 1941 into a family of screenwriters.Nora began her career as a journalist
at the New York Post in the 60’s.She went on to write plays, books, and movies.Her films always included strong female characters.Her most popular films include Silkwood (1983,) When Harry Met Sally (1989,) Sleepless in Seattle (1993,) You’ve Got Mail (1998,) and Julie and Julia (2009.)

Ephron
received many awards including Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met
Sally, a Women in Film Crystal
Award, an Ian McLellan Hunter
Award from the Writers Guild, and
a Golden Apple Award for
casting.

Nora
Ephron died on June 26 from pneumonia, resulting from acute myeloid
leukemia.She had been diagnosed
with the disease in 2006.She was
71 years old.Ephron had planned
her own funeral and filed the information in a folder marked “Exit.”She
was cremated and her ashes scattered.

July~

She
became the first American woman in space. Even as a child in the fifties, Sally
Ride had always dreamed of flying,
not just through the sky, but higher, much higher - above the earth…

Ride
made history on that June morning in 1983 as the first female astronaut on the
space shuttle Challenger. She was one of five crew members on board, and served
as a Mission Specialist for the six-day operation.

In
1984, Ride made a second shuttle flight, again on Challenger.She was in training for a third mission
when Challenger exploded, killing all on board.Ride was the only person who served on both investigative
commissions, one for the Challenger accident in 1986, and also for the Space
Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003.

Sally
left NASA in 1985, to become a physics professor at the University of
California, San Diego, and director of the California Space Institute.In 2001, she founded Sally Ride
Science, which promotes math and science educations for girls.

Sally
Ride died on July 23 in La Jolla, California of pancreatic cancer.She was 61.She is buried at Woodlawn cemetery in Santa Monica,
California.

August
~

Phyllis
Diller proved the old boys wrong –
you could be a woman, do stand up comedy, and get the laughs.

Born
in Lima, Ohio in 1917, Diller followed the expected path of a girl in the 30’s
and 40’s; get an education, get married, and have kids.She attended the Sherwood Music
Conservatory in Chicago, met and married Sherwood Diller, and had six children.
But there the role of housewife ended.

By
the time she was 35, Diller was working in radio and recording a 15-minute
television show.In 1955, she
started doing stand up comedy at the Purple Onion in San Francisco.She was so good; her two-week
engagement lasted for more than a year and a half.This led to appearances on the Red Skelton Show and the Jack
Benny Show.

By
the 1960’s, Diller was appearing with Bob Hope in his television specials, and
in three of his films. In 1966, she made her first trip to Viet Nam with Hope’s
USO troupe.Audiences loved her
wisecracking, self-deprecating housewife persona; she would joke about her
husband Fang, her appearance, and her cooking.

Diller in Hello Dolly

Throughout
her career, Diller also appeared in films, on TV series, including her own in
1968, and on Broadway in 1969, starring in Hello Dolly. She released five comedy albums, and performed as a
piano soloist in over 100 symphony concerts across the country. (She had
trained to be a pianist but didn’t feel she was good enough to make it her career.)

Phyllis
Dilller died on August 20 in Los Angeles, California.She was 95.Diller was cremated and her ashes returned to the family.

~

When
you mention Apollo 11 – you remember that boot print on the moon, and the man
who made it - Neal Armstrong.

Born
in Wapakoneta, Ohio in 1930, Armstrong grew up wanting to fly. He served as a
naval aviator in the Korean War, and then attended Purdue University. After
graduation, he became a test pilot at NACA – later to become NASA – where he
logged over 900 hours of flights.

Armstrong
made his first space flight on the Gemini 8 in 1966.It was three years later when Armstrong boarded the Apollo
11, as mission commander, heading for the moon.

On
July 20, 1969, the Apollo Lunar Module landed on the moon.Neal Armstrong was first out the door
of the capsule.He paused at the
bottom of the module ladder, then placed his left boot on the moon’s surface
and said, “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin then spent over two hours exploring the lunar
surface.

Shortly
after the Apollo flight, Armstrong announced his retirement from NASA.He accepted a teaching position at the
University of Cincinnati in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in
1971.He resigned in 1979.Armstrong continued to live in
Cincinnati until his death.

Neal
Armstrong died on August 25 in Cincinnati, Ohio from complications due to
coronary bypass surgery.He was 82
years old.Armstrong was cremated
and his ashes scattered in the Atlantic Ocean.

September
~

September
saw the death of South Korean religious leader, Sun Myung Moon, who founded the
Unification Church in 1954 in Seoul, Korea.Moon claimed he founded the church after he met Jesus Christ
in 1936 in the Korean countryside. Moon said he was told that he was to be the
second messiah.

Moon
moved to the United States in 1971. He founded News World Communications (NWC)
in 1976, and the company began newspapers around the world including the Washington Times.NWC also owns United Press International (UPI) and Pyeonghwa
Motors in South Korea.

Moon
was charged and convicted with filing false federal income tax returns and
conspiracy in 1982.He was
sentenced to serve 18 months but was let out after 13 months for good
behavior.He was fined $15,000.

The
Unification Church is known for its large wedding ceremonies known as “The
Blessing.”The ceremony was first
held in 1961 for 36 couples, all members of the Unification Church in South
Korea.Moon had matched all of the
couples, except 12 who were already married and taking part in the ceremony as
a rededication.In 1982, the first
Blessing ceremony took place outside of Korea at Madison Square Gardens in the
U.S.The Blessing ceremony is not
a legal wedding ceremony but what the church calls “marriage affirmation
ceremony", with legal weddings taking place later in separate ceremonies. In
1997, a ceremony took place in Washington D.C. for over 28,000 couples.

Sun
Myung Moon died of complications from pneumonia on September 3rd.He was 92.Moon was buried at his home on a hillside near Gapyeong,
South Korea.

October
~

U.S.
politician and Democratic presidential nominee for the 1972 presidential
election, George McGovern, died in October.

McGovern
served in the Air Force during WW II, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross
from saving his crew.After the
war, he attended Northwestern University where he received a PhD.

McGovern
was known as a liberal Democrat. He was elected to the House of
Representatives in 1956 and re-elected in 1958.During the 1960’s, he spoke out against the U.S. involvement
in View Nam.By 1970 he was attempting
to end the war with an amendment, which was defeated.In 1972, McGovern ran against Richard Nixon for the Office
of President of the United States.He lost to Nixon in what was one of the biggest landslide election wins
in U.S. electoral history.McGovern went on to be re-elected to the Senate in 1974.

McGovern
became involved with programs that dealt with agriculture, nutrition, food and
hunger.He served as chair of the
Senate Select committee of nutrition and Human Needs from 1968 to 1977.He was the U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 1998 to 2001.And, he was appointed as the first UN
Global Ambassador on World Hunger in 2001.

George
McGovern died on October 21st in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.He was 90 years old.McGovern was buried at Rock Creek
Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

November
~

A
man that TV viewers loved to hate in the 1980’s died in November.Larry Hagman kept viewers of the prime
time television soap opera, Dallas,
riveted to the screen each week as they waited for his next ruthless move as
oil baron J.R. Ewing.

Hagman
was born in 1931 to actress Mary Martin of Peter Pan fame. After a stint in the
Air Force, Hagman performed in several Broadway and off-Broadway plays.Then, in 1956 he landed a part on the
soap opera, The Edge of Night.

In
1965, Hagman went on to become one of the most loveable characters on
television, starring as astronaut Anthony Nelson, with Barbara Eden as his magic
genie, in the sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie.The show ran until 1970
and afterwards Hagman made guest appearances on other programs.

It
wasn’t until 1977 that Hagman found his ‘perfect’ role as J.R. Ewing on Dallas.It
was one of the most-watched shows of all time, lasting for 14 and ½
seasons.The “Who Shot J.R.?”
episode remains the second most watched program in TV history.Hagman reprised his role as Ewing this
year, for TNT’s continuation of Dallas.

Larry
Hagman died from complications of throat cancer, appropriately enough in Dallas, Texas, on November 23rd.He was 81 years old.No
official burial site has been given for Hagman.

December
~

The
oldest person in the world died on December 4.Besse Brown Cooper of Georgia was 116 years old.Born on August 26, 1896 in Sullivan
County, Tennessee, Cooper was the third of eight children.She graduated from East Tennessee State
Normal School (University) in 1916.She taught school in Tennessee and Georgia until 1929.

Besse
married Luther Cooper in 1924 and had four children.Luther died in 1963.Besse remained on their farm in Georgia until 2001 when she moved into a
nursing home.She was 105 at the
time.

Cooper
became the oldest resident in Georgia in 2009. In 2011, she was the last known
surviving person born in 1896, and the oldest person in the world.Besse Brown Cooper died on December 4
in Monroe, Georgia at the age of 116 years and 100 days. She was buried in New
Hope Methodist Church Cemetery near Monroe, Georgia.

About Me

I
love wine and will take any chance to sip, savor and share it! Hence, Joy’s JOY
of Wine http://joysjoyofwine.blogspot.com,
a weekly blog about all things wine. I've been in the industry for 15
years as a winery owner, marketing director, speaker, writer, wine judge, and
100% vino girl!

I'm
also a professional freelance magazine and book writer uncorking articles about
wine, food, history, travel, cemetery history and culture. My interest in
cemetery culture led to another great, or maybe I should say
"grave" gig, my weekly blog: A Grave Interest http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com where I get to travel around the country and speak about cemetery topics for genealogy, history and
education conferences.

I suppose you could say that wine is my
passion, and cemeteries are my diversion ... into another world.

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